WWE Monday Night Raw drops to record low rating, nearly losing to AEW in key 18-49 adult demo

The once proud year-round cable darling and franchise program of WWE – Monday Night Raw – reached record low viewership last night on USA Network with a 1.12 rating. That is down from the prior week’s 1.21 rating and the rolling ten week average of 1.24. Up against a competitive NFL Monday Night Football game on ESPN, Raw began with only 1.624 million viewers in the first hour, dropped to 1.512 in the second hour, and closed with 1.441 million in the third hour. The first-to-third hour dropoff was less than usual (186,000, below 249,000 average in 2020), but they had fewer viewers to lose considering where they started.

Just as big as the overall rating and viewership drop is the core demo. Among 18-49 year olds, Raw drew a 0.46 rating, down from last week’s 0.51. AEW last Wednesday drew a 0.45 in that demo, essentially tied given the margin of error. AEW beat Raw not only in the young 18-34 male demo, but the broader 18-49 male demo. Raw drew 0.20 compared to AEW’s 0.30 in the 18-34 male demo. Raw drew a 0.46 compared to AEW’s 0.57.

Right now, AEW Dynamite has closed the gap nearly entirely with the most valuable cable property outside of major pro and college sports. Given the trendlines, a case can be made that Dynamite is on course of overtake Raw in the areas that matter most to advertisers and cable networks.